Broken English

Opening onto the Kafkaesque Ministry of Not Forgetting – an imaginary institution supposedly created to preserve memory – Broken English meticulously documents the life (and lies) of iconoclastic British singer-songwriter Marianne Faithfull. Diverging from a run-of-the-mill music documentary, directors Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard's film blends the nuances of living memory with the formalities of a dispassionate archival institution, headed by a steely Tilda Swinton.

George MacKay shines as a kind, warm interviewer, and he and 78-year-old Faithfull have chemistry to burn. Their mutual respect contrasts with Faithfull’s experiences of misogyny at the hands of the media, illustrated through carefully assembled montages of archive interviews. Adding some mellifluous character to this tension is Faithfull’s enchanting performances through the decades, as her voice transforms from youthful folksy ephemerality to the raspy edge of new wave. Although now restricted from singing due to emphysema, Faithfull’s legacy is prolonged through stirring covers of her songs and emphatic roundtable love-ins by contemporary artists.

Despite the restrictions imposed by her ill-health, Faithfull is an indomitable participant in the film. Perhaps the most moving element of Broken English is her being enraptured by footage of her growing older, and the vulnerability that emerges as she reflects on galvanising into the artist she is today after surviving suicide and drug addiction. The film’s production halted abruptly in January 2025 with Faithfull’s passing, and as such, Broken English’s motley aesthetic can feel incongruent. Forsyth and Pollard ensured one thing, though: Marianne Faithfull has the last word, even in death.

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Broken English receives its Scottish premiere on 26 & 27 Feb, and is released on 20 Mar via Vue Lumiere